Tuesday, February 28, 2006

I am writing to you regarding the interview that was conducted two days ago on Mr. Zia Atabay’s NITV, to let you know that as an Iranian I was quite offended by the manner in which you, more than once, compared and equated the Shah of Iran with the Shiite terrorist Mullah Khamenei. I’m sure that your office has since informed you of reactions of similar nature. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Iran would find the comparison scurrilous. To an Iranian it is mind boggling and outrageous.

You made these remarks in response to a fax sent an Iranian viewer under the belief that you were expressing sympathy with its author. That fax was read in Persian by Mr. Atabay and translated by Ario Pirouznia. Please allow me to provide you with a correct translation, to show you that you were in no way expressing sympathy with the viewer:

“We Iranians have a very bad memory of Mr. Carter’s conduct. Are the American people and the American government able to recompense for what happened in 1979?”

Sir, the compensation in question concerns the Carter administration’s support of anti-Iranian revolutionaries. It does not concern a SUPPOSED backing of the Shah of Iran in which you, believing that you were expressing agreement with the viewer, stated that the US was in the wrong!

I assure you that had the issue been of concern to myself alone, or that had I not been encouraged by the impression that you would welcome such feedback, I would not have made the (what has in the past proven to be a wasted) effort.